• Accepted Paper

Evolving toward tidal disruption events from black hole-white dwarf systems

Yi Zhang, Ku Xu, and Wen-Cong Chen

Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 24 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/d8n5-sd2r

Abstract

Tidal disruption event (TDEs) originated from black hole (BH)-white dwarf (WD) systems not only produce signals of low-frequency gravitational wave (GW), γ-ray, and supernovae Ia-like, but also associate with BH ultracompact X-ray binaries (UCXBs). Based on a semi-analytical method, we systematically investigate the formation of TDEs evolving from stellar-mass BH-WD systems. Our simulations show that, for those BH-WD systems with initial orbital periods shorter than critical periods, GW radiation always dominates the orbital evolution after they evolve into UCXBs, driving those systems to experience a continuous orbital decay and eventually trigger TDEs. BH UCXBs can appear as ultraluminous X-ray sources and low-frequency GW sources with high signal-to-noise ratios prior to TDEs, which provide multi-messenger signals to pursue follow-up observations of TDEs in Local Group of Galaxies. We also obtain an initial parameter space of BH–WD binaries as the progenitors of TDEs in the WD masses and orbital periods plane, which can be applied to future population synthesis simulations.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation

If the author has provided any supplemental materials with this article they will be available upon publication of the version of record.

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation